Review of Higurashi: When They Cry – Kai

This is going to be a review for both Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni, and Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Kai, since I literally watched them back to back and I have a lot to say about this series. So before I start, if I were to rate Higurashi based on only the first season, I would have given this series a 9/10. No question, but Kai really didn't come through with me, so my rating went down to a 8/10. Still good, but let me explain. The story is already well known. A young boy named Keichi Maebara transfers to a small village close tothe mountains and befriends a group of school girls. Things look peaceful, but this little village holds lots of secrets.

Even after ten years, Higurashi still stands the test of time. Keep in mind, this anime came out 10 years ago, but it is still relevant to this day. If you are a lot like me, you will come out of this anime thinking: "Was this really made 10 years ago?" You have that lingering sensation, that pit in your stomach, that you know some of the topics at hand are still discussed within society to this way. To name a few: the topic of bullying, abuse, hardship, abandonment, trust and most of all fate. At the end of the day, Higurashi heavily focuses on the friendship between all the main characters, but as I stated, there is so much more to it.

And for me, this is why I loved it.

The second season was tamer and not as scary/gory as the first one -reason why I was a little disappointment with the developments of the second one- but all in all, it's a series that I highly recommend anybody to watch.

It actually shows that not many things have changed in ten years since it first aired-regardless of what people may think. And within all this gore and horror, it demonstrates that -even if you were to have a replay button- life isn't easy, and we just need to go live it.